Battery box and driver's fender repair, day one

This is what I started with.  The original battery box on the driver's side was lumpy, a bit undersized for what I plan on putting in there, and riddled with holes.  In my quest not just to piece the rig together but also to improve it where I can, I found a good replacement battery box (skeleton) to pop in place of this thing.

The replacement.  A little too aerated than it will be when finalized, but it's crisp, true, and properly sized.

Cutting out the old one was easy.

Side by side comparison.  Note the size difference.

The original hole.  Since the new one is larger, I'll be able to get rid of some of this junk.

A sharpie line shows what will get cut off.

A little neater.  More to cut off, though.

 Crisper edges, but a little too small to accommodate the new box.

Just about right.

Here's a closeup of the hat channel that runs below the battery box.  It's caked in some kind of primordial mud, and obviously it has rotted out the sheet metal panel.

I've picked out to see how far down it goes.

I've gotten most of the mud/crud out.  It's down there on my workbench.

There was some actual wood left, but not a lot.

Test-fitting the new box.  What an improvement.

I ground through as much of the paint and primer as I could to get clean metal for my welds.

Time to weld it in.  Again, lots of holes right now that will be patched later.

Boogers.

There was a little larger gap than I wanted (about 3/16"), but I've got a plan that will not just fix the gap but also make the structure stronger.

Here's a shot of the first "patch" panel in place.  I'm basically going to line the entire box.  One might ask, then why  bother buying a box in the first place?  Well, it was inexpensive (like $20), square/true, and effective in design.  By putting in all these panels to fill the holes, I'm going to make it even more solid for today's modern and quite heavy batteries (which I'll need for the V8).

Largest plug welds ever.

Anywhere there's a seam, I'm on it with the welder.

Pretty good heat penetration.  Also, that's a patch strip to fill in that 3/16" gap.

Inner window frame repair

The inner window frame is a mess, but I refuse to buy a new one.  I want to restore this thing, and a repopped part (not my term) from an aftermarket supplier just feels wrong to me.

These are the tools I need to get going.  A new attachment for the grinder (tasty) and some Permatex Rust Treatment, which I'm going through like bottled water.

 This is the top rail, in the center.  It's knackered but not dead yet.

The rest of the inner window frame is morbid, at best, but I'm determined to make it work through a combination of rust treatment, grinding, fiberglass resin, and patch panels.

The only reason I feel like I can save this rot is because it ultimately isn't structure.  Yes, it holds the glass in place, but it doesn't hold my kids or the gas tank in place, so ...

Clamped in place so that I can go at it with the new grinder attachment.

Much cleaner now.  And that little bit of rot means even less to me.

While I was at it, I decided to strip the entire frame down to bare metal.  I needed to know if there were any pin holes that needed attention.

This is one bulge I can't seem to make go away.  The rust is just too much right now.  I might use a cutoff wheel and slide a chunk or two out of it, squeeze it together with a clamp, and then weld it back up. We'll see.

For now, I need the rust converted so that whatever I do end up doing will work.

I tilted the frame parts up over a bucket so that the excess Permatex could drain out.

I'd left this hold in the main window frame so that I could pour Permatex inside the frame to stop any interior/unseen rot.

I then covered up all the holes I could find with some painter's tape.  These are for the lower cowl seal.

This is a hole of my own drilling.  It got me access to the lower cross bar, which had some dust inside it that I could hear rattling around.  The middle cross bar had the same and got the same treatment.  Now when I shake it, no noise, thus no loose rust.  Job done.

Parking brake installation

Here's the parking brake lever, all cleaned up.

Here's the mounting plate with the adjuster bolted to the back of the Dana 18.  I had to get a new lower-right bolt of the right length (it's the shortest).

The adjuster arm with the brake lever attached.  I squirted the spring-loaded cable down with Liquid Wrench to remove some of the rust and get it cleaned up.

Shoes installed.  Having never worked with drum brakes before, this was a nice, easy, and quite simple setup to work on.  At some point, I'll have to crack open the hubs on the axles and look those brakes over, as well.

All tightened up, with red LocTite on the bolts.

Got a cotter pin in the castle nut on the brake lever.  I'll wait on getting the cable hooked up.  (I still need to work on the dashboard hand lever bracketry that broke some time prior to my purchase of the project.)

Plus the drain plugs that I hadn't gotten around to installing.

Bondo off and on

Well, I forgot to take a before picture.  I was skiing with the family all day today and wanted to get this task done before a clean-up shower.  Here it is with a skim coat of bondo.  I'll let it set up this week and remove what I need to on Friday most likely.

I also went after the little blemishes that were the result of removing what was left of 3/4" pipe welded to the tub in three different spots.

This is the driver's side entrance point, top view.  A few ugly spots to be filled here, as well.

I turned my attention to dash panel.  It'd had bondo on it for a while, so I went after it with an orbital sander to get it down to final smoothness.  Again, not worried about it being perfectly flat, but I want the two patch panels not to show through the paint job.  You can see hints of them, of course, in the pic below, but that just means the bondo is doing its job leveling things out a bit (though not exactly).

Driver's side.

Center dash.

Passenger's side.

Job done.

Patching holes and sanding bondo

This is the driver's side of the cowl.  Another Swiss cheese mess.  The bracket on the left is a reinforcement plate for where the windshield attaches.  I don't want it or need it, so used the air chisel to pop it off.  It was only held in place towards the bottom.

A close-up of the holes. Eleven in total.

Sanded back to prep for welding.  Through most of the holes, you can see a plate behind it.

Look at all the off-gassing flux.

Making some headway.  A few of the holes needed discs for plugs.  The holes on the left (all three) will remain, two for the windshield pivot point and one that I think can be used for an antenna, a fluid line, or something of that sort.  I won't be using it for any of those, so I'll likely plug it with a firewall grommet.

This shot is just a reminder of the bondo I'm starting with.  

I went to town, blowing through about twenty discs of 180 grit to do the side, which I think is more a commentary on the lousy quality of sanding discs than anything else.  I'm very happy with how the bondo helped eliminate seams for my patch panels and a few of the ripples that were already in the tub.